X-Message-Number: 26421
From:
Subject: British Columbia Update
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 17:37:19 GMT
At the Cryonics Institute we recently received a letter
from Tayt Winnitoy, Director of Operations for the
Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority of
the Province of British Columbia.
In the letter, he stated: "...you are correct in your statement
regarding the sale of cryonics arrangements in British Columbia.
It is now section 14 of the Cremation, Interment and Funeral
Services Act which states:
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Prohibition on sales, and offers of sale, of
arrangements relating to cryonics and irradiation
14 A person must not offer for sale, or sell, an arrangement for the
preservation or storage of human remains that is based on
(a) cryonics,
(b) irradiation, or
(c) any other means of preservation or storage, by whatever name called,
and that is offered, or sold, on the expectation of the resuscitation
of human remains at a future time.
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"This section therefore prohibits the offering or selling of cryonic
arrangements in BC where the offer or sale is premised on the expectation
that the human remains with be [sic] resuscitated at a future time."
Andy Zawacki, our facilities manager, had asked for clarification
and re-assurance concerning our understanding that British Columbia law
only prohibited the marketing of cryonics, not the practice of cryonics.
We have been told this repeatedly by BC bureaucrats:
http://www.cryocdn.org/law57.html
most recently in a letter to Olaf Henry:
http://www.cryocdn.org/law57.html#letter
If British Columbia does indeed only prohibit marketing, there is no way
that any lawyer doing an investigation from an enquiring hospital or
funeral service would get that understanding from a law that explicitly
says not person shall "offer for sale, or sell" preservation or storage
based on cryonics. Nor would they get that impression from the letter
from Tayt Winnitoy -- which did not otherwise answer Andy's question.
The British Columbia Cremation, Interment and Funeral Services Act
is online (Bill 3 -- 2004):
http://www.legis.gov.bc.ca/37th5th/1st_read/gov03-1.htm
If Dave Pizer is eager to have a lawsuit, I suggest that he initiate
one against the government of British Columbia.
-- Ben Best, President, Cryonics Institute
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